By: Meghan Donovan, Staff Writer
Sport Business students from Saint Leo were able to return to school before the black-out hit New Orleans during Super Bowl XLVII.
Last week, a select group of students from the sport business program got the opportunity to travel to New Orleans to see some of the behind-the-scenes preparation for the Super Bowl. On Tuesday morning, six students and Dr. Williamson left Saint Leo and drove seven hours to Louisiana. Upon arrival, the group picked up their credentials and toured New Orleans briefly before their week of work began.
Tuesday night, they attended the live CBS Sports Show. Wednesday the group worked with the NFL Experience. The group learned, first-hand, the kinds of activities the NFL Experience puts on at an event such as a Super Bowl. They saw activities not only for kids, but for adults as well.
After learning about and watching some of the activities available to fans, the group was able to attend an autograph signing. Former NFL players, including some from the Hall of Fame, were able to sign autographs for all in attendance.
After their busy day on Wednesday, the group got to see the Vince Lombardi Trophy before enjoying some time off in downtown New Orleans on Thursday.
To finish out the week, a Saint Leo alumnus, Mike Stanfield, met with the students. This graduate from Saint Leo is now the Vice-President of Ticket and Suite Sales for the New Orleans Saints. With 13 years of work with the club, he was able to talk to the students about the career he has built since graduating from Saint Leo.
The group travelled home before the Super Bowl because of an organization flaw at the game. Thousands of credentials were lost, and volunteers could not keep up with the amount of help being demanded to re-organize all that needed to be done.
This lack of organization was the beginning to a long day in New Orleans—especially for San Francisco 49ers fans.
Opening up for the game, the Sandy Hook Elementary School Chorus sang along-side Alicia Keys as the teams prepared for the biggest game of the year. Shortly thereafter, the game began and it wasn’t long before Baltimore began to dominate in New Orleans. Anquan Boldin scored the game’s first touchdown and Baltimore stayed on top for the rest of the game.
At halftime, Beyoncé’ took the stage as fans filled up the stadium to watch the halftime performance that reminded college-aged students what it was like growing up listening to Destiny’s Child.
As the concert winded down, the game was about to start up once again. Baltimore was up 21-6 and San Francisco fans began craving a momentum change. Little did they know, their wish was soon to be granted.
Just minutes into the second half, a power surge knocked out every light in the stadium. As the darkness fell on the stadium, the players attempted to keep their focus until it was time to play again. Over thirty minutes passed and the players still hadn’t taken the field to continue the game. The players continued to stretch in attempts to stay warm and stay focused for the rest of the game.
About 45 minutes went by before the stadium obtained enough power to get the game going again and San Francisco realized just how much of a momentum change they could create here. Now, 22 points down, Colin Kaepernick found Michael Crabtree in the end zone for a much-needed touchdown. This second-half team used this to shift the energy in the stadium to favor them: they began the long crawl out of the hole they created in the first half.
Although they continued scoring, it just wasn’t enough. They were able to more than quadruple their score from before the black-out but Baltimore’s team would not give up the Super Bowl victory that was at their fingertips.
Despite the black-out and momentum shift in the second half, San Francisco’s rookie quarterback could not pull out a win for the team. Baltimore held on to win 34-31, and defensive lineman, and super-star hype man Ray Lewis said his final goodbye to the NFL. He did so with one of his infamous dance moves and a confetti angel on the field as his team celebrated the win.
